A collection of seven off-the-wall and funny short stories of 'Sailor Moon' - none of which are actually about Sailor Moon herself, but her Guardian friends.
First off there's 'Chibi-Usa's Picture Diary: Beware the Transfer Student' - About Chibiusa's first days at school, her classmates, and vampires. Sailor Moon and Sailor Venus are idols for Chibiusa as well as for the rest of the kids. They show up to defeat a vampire in a few panels. Cute art, standard story for little-uns, and BTW, I didn't know vampires liked flowers.
The second story is called, 'Chibi-Usa's Picture Diary: Beware of Tanabata', revolving around the Chinese legend of Tanabata: of Shokujo and Kengyu. Haruka and Michiru make a cute cameo appearance, Mamoru is an idiot, the cats’ roles diminish as time goes on, and there's straw feminism mixed with stereotyped assumptions about men as well. Plus, like with the 'Codename: Sailor V' manga, there's the implication that only young, slim, pretty girls can be happy because they'll have handsome men in their lives. I wouldn't call this a subversion or deconstruction of an old legend when it sorely relies on gender stereotypes to get its point across.
Third is 'Chibi-Usa's Picture Diary: Beware of Cavities' - A typical monster-of-the-week story about fearing dentists. Add in a rather weak healthy-eating message and the job’s done; no insight to be found here. At least Sailor Moon and Sailor Venus share in a battle again with Chibiusa (thank heaven this is her last "Picture Diary" entry - she's had enough of the spotlight). And wow these stories are excessively boisterous! I'd even call the artwork for the comedy scenes an eyesore.
Now onto the 'Exam Battle Stories' - exactly what it says on the tin. The Inner Sailor Guardians are at their high school entrance examination period. Ridiculous evil spirits to fight come and go, too. In 'The Melancholy of Mako-Chan', we learn more about everyone's favourite vigorous and feminine "big sister" Guardian, Makoto Kino /Sailor Jupiter, as she procrastinates studying to go bargain-hunting for pretty things, to cook, clean, and drink tea during the girls' study groups.
'Ami-Chan's First Love' - Ami Mizuno/Sailor Mercury studies hard nearly all the time, and contrary to her usual kind nature, where exams are concerned she is tough on her friends to study as well. She can understand and solve any and every problem. Except for love letters, which make her break out in hives. In this story, she obsessively competes against a rival who keeps getting the same perfect score as her in mock exam results, to the point where she might be falling in love - with someone she only knows by pen name. Of course Ami's ideal man would be Albert Einstein, and with so much emphasis on her being extremely intelligent (300 IQ!), why would she choose her own exam board pen name to be "Mercury"? Isn't that a dead giveaway of her secret identity? Like if Clark Kent were to submit a story to the Daily Planet under the name, “Supes”? Or if Bruce Wayne ran a business called, “Bat Management”? But aside from that, this is a great Ami-centered story. She is drawn with such an array of expressions it's both funny and charming, and boy is she competitive! My favourite line, from Minako, is, ""Rival equals enemy," eh? I think I'll stop trying to improve my grades, then, since I don't wanna get killed by Ami-Chan!" Umino appears! Even Usagi remarks that she forgot about his existence in the past year!
'Rei's and Minako's Girls School Battle?' - An instant favourite if you're a Rei/Minako fan and consider the pairing to be canon, or you think it should be (They always look the perfect match when drawn together). We delve into the hyperactive, boy-crazy, superficial mind of one Minako Aino/Sailor Venus, and what she thinks of each of her friends, including her exact opposite, Rei Hino/Sailor Mars. Despite being jealous of Rei, Minako does admire her more "refined" friend. This could be interpreted as their own special love story - about a love-hate relationship between two teenage girls growing up into high school age, with new, wider experiences ahead of them.
The seventh - and fortunately the last - story is, 'Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Side Story: The Secret Hammer Price Hall'. It is full of valley girl speak. Oh joy. I hate this sexist stereotype, its overuse in the media in the 1990s-early 2000s, and how it typically has vapid Barbie clones effortlessly butcher the English language merely by opening their mouths. In this case it’s most bizarre because the two valley girls are meant to be speaking Japanese (They are called Ganguro girls here: Culture sharing? Approbation?) My eye twitches just reading the horrendous dialogue, even if it is parody (and I don't blame the translator for the interpretation). One other thing; I do not care about brands, and I never have. Why would Chibiusa be friends with such airheads in the first place? At least Hotaru Tomoe is at hand in her part as the straight man - she is my hero in this. While there are some genuinely funny moments - "Chubster Mask" made me laugh out loud, and the self-aware Sailor Moon laments her lack of presence in these stories, despite being the main character - it is obnoxious and messy overall. There’s too many grown men fetishizing young girls, and apparently 'Sailor Moon' is a franchise in its own universe, with its own cosplay, manga and anime. Whatever, clearly it's not meant to be taken seriously, just like the other stories. And whenever an enemy shows up, why do the Sailor Guardians keep transforming from their civilian identities in public, in front of everyone?
Another thing, isn't the cover of this volume the cutest, most precious thing ever? Takeuchi-san's art continues to amaze me.
My final 'Sailor Moon' manga review is coming up: with the second short stories volume, containing, in my opinion, much better and more sophisticated storytelling; the best the franchise has to offer.
Final Score: 3.5/5
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